If you have never blogged before and are interested in starting a corporate blog, there are a few issues and concerns that you need to be aware of before you ever get started. These can be treacherous waters at times and if you are not prepared, it is all too easy to get in over your head. Blogging can be a great way to increase consumer confidence and build a strong brand, but you will need to be able to spot and avoid some common pitfalls along the wall.

First up, you need to make sure that your blog is taking advantage of all the latest technological advances. This means having a blog that has an RSS feed and utilizing buttons that will allow your readers to share the articles on social bookmarking sites. These are two very simple things but many bloggers omit them. An RSS feed is essential since most blog readers rely on their newsreader software to find out when new articles are posted. This is done with RSS feeds. If you don’t have one, your readers may never make it back to your site to see if you have new content posted.

Social bookmarking buttons are incredibly useful and can help new readers discover you. There are plugins available for most blogging applications that allow you to easily add these buttons to your site. Once they are there, visitors can simply click that button to share your blog with others. This can really increase your page views, especially when you have a popular post.

Next, you need to be aware that blogging is a very public forum and you will be opening yourself up to criticism, and some of it may be ugly. You need to go over some responses now so that you can keep a cool head when it matters. If your company has some known issues with customer support or other problems, you need to have responses all ready to go that will address this.

Comments sections can be deadly for a company that has this kind of problem. You can avoid a lot of controversy by simply not allowing any comments. However, this can backfire if readers feel that you are hiding something and do not want to allow them the freedom to discuss your posts. It’s a double edged sword and you’ll need to find the right balance for your unique needs.

Lastly, running a successful corporate blog can take a lot of time. If you are trying to do it yourself, or if you have an employee handling it for you, this will be taking you away from your other work. You may want to consider hiring a blog management service so that you can focus on your actual work and leave the blog to them. This is a great solution for first time bloggers that aren’t really sure what they need to be doing with their blog and how to handle everything that comes with it.

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